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Biotechnology Techniques for Tracing Food Pathogens

Mar 9, 2010 11:27am

Dr. Shu Chen from the University of Guelph (Canada) presented this afternoon at the Annual North American Summit on Food Safety, describing her work on developing molecular methods for food safety and quality monitoring. There are several molecular methods for genotyping food pathogens and tracing them back to their source....

E. coli O157:H7 Duped by Built-in Food Safety Mechanism

Mar 7, 2010 10:30pm

The North American Summit on Food Safety starts tomorrow and I promised to tell the interesting story of how Dr. Rick Holley's laboratory is using applied food biotechnology to build safety into meat products. In a chain of events somewhat analogous to the activation of suicide genes in GMOs released...

Summit on Food Safety

Mar 4, 2010 4:16pm

Toronto (Canada) plays host next Tuesday and Wednesday to the 6th Annual North American Summit on Food Safety. Topics being covered include some very relevant issues in food biotechnology, such as pathogen management and building safety into food. A presentation on the latter, by Dr. Rick Holley (Dept. of Food...

Digital Education in the Sciences

Mar 2, 2010 2:32pm

I was recently asked about my thoughts on the ongoing shift to digital education and social media legitimacy as it pertains to science and biotechnology. It seems in the past 2 or so years, it isn't enough for a scientific journal to publish it's papers online, but, nearly each and...

What Fascinates You?

Feb 25, 2010 6:23am

We all have those moments, especially while at work doing the same mundane task day in and day out, where we wonder why we became scientists in the first place. Do you remember what fascinates you about science? MAKE magazine has created a webpage called The Elements of Humanity, that...

Epigenetic Markers Change with Age

Feb 18, 2010 11:38pm

During development of our bodies, when the cells of the blastocyst begin to differentiate into specialized forms to make various tissues, there are a number of epigenetic markers that determine what kind of tissue is formed. One of these markers is DNA methylation. Methylation patterns on our DNA change with...

Cervical Cancer Immunoassay Improves Diagnostic Accuracy

Feb 16, 2010 12:12pm

Mtm Laboratories in Germany announced today the publication of research on a biomarker for detecting cervical cancer more accurately than previously possible. Bergeron et al. have published a paper, due for publication in March in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, that describes the technology. The immunoassay is based on...

Evolution of Bioprocessing

Feb 15, 2010 8:33am

There are a number of reasons E. coli is the preferred organism for gene cloning, and when biopharmaceuticals first made the market, it was the primary cell system for bioprocessing. Then companies started making use of mammalian cell cultures, because of their ability to glycosylate (add sugars to, post-translation) protein...

Engineered Bioplastics Degrade on Demand

Feb 15, 2010 7:18am

Here's a whole new way to handle waste and reduce the volume of garbage in landfills. Scientists at the Alberta Bioplastics Network (ABN) in Canada are researching various bioplastics that don't biodegrade while the product is in use (i.e. as the bumper of your car) but, once tossed away, can...

Compostable Sun Chips Biotech Bag

Feb 9, 2010 12:48pm

Watching the Superbowl football game Sunday night was actually an educational biotech experience for me, because I was introduced to the Sun Chips compostable chip bag during a commercial break. After a quick investigation, I've discovered that the bags are a biotech innovation. The chip bags are made from polylactic...